<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Five Reasons Kelly Stays by snagglepuss</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28206804">Five Reasons Kelly Stays</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/snagglepuss/pseuds/snagglepuss'>snagglepuss</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Office (US)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, fluff?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:14:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,919</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28206804</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/snagglepuss/pseuds/snagglepuss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Five reasons Kelly Kapoor stays with Ryan Howard, even though she deserves, like, so much better.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ryan Howard/Kelly Kapoor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Five Reasons Kelly Stays</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Juliana :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <ol>
<li><strong>He calls her ‘button’.</strong></li>
</ol><p>
  
</p><p>It’s late when it first happens. They’d just finished yet another evening of love making (Ryan <em>hates </em>when Kelly calls it that, but she does it anyway. He learns to tolerate it.) and Ryan is already nodding off at her side. He’s been so wrapped up in business school lately he can hardly keep his eyes open. Kelly’s grateful he still makes time for her, even if he has an ulterior motive. This time, though, it’s been particularly easy to pretend he’s there because he loves her. Usually, their evenings together are filled with passive aggressive remarks from Ryan and a whole lot of feigned ignorance on Kelly’s end. Lately though, he’s been softer with her.</p><p>Kelly’s not all the way sure why this is, but she’s grateful for it. Maybe it’s the exhaustion, or the stress from work making him somewhat grateful for Kelly- he knows now he could have it worse. Maybe he appreciates her now- if only a fraction as much as she appreciates him. Either way, she knows not to take it for granted. Sometimes she thinks things with Ryan change faster than she can blink.</p><p>So, it’s weeks of him looking at her a little softer, listening a little more, and even holding the door for her when they leave the office sometimes, all leading up to this one life altering climax:</p><p>She’s curled into his side (albeit at Ryan’s reluctance) when she mumbles the same thing she always does, a simple “goodnight, Ryan,” that she expects to go ignored. It almost always is. It’s only when she’s almost asleep that Kelly hears it.</p><p>“Goodnight, Button.”</p><p>It’s so out of character and Ryan’s so out of it that she’s not even sure she’s heard him right. But when she sits up she catches a glimpse of that smirk on his face, the one he saves for when he thinks no one can see, and she’s so excited there’s no way she can fall back asleep.</p><p>Everything in her itches to say something but she holds back. She knows how he can be. Kelly doesn’t want to ruin the moment or do anything to make Ryan wish he hadn’t gone so soft with her. So instead of bringing it up, she smiles wider than she ever has and snuggles back into his side, thinking about it until she finally does fall asleep, dreaming of Ryan doing something that really <em>does </em>ring true.</p><p>He calls her Button again tomorrow.</p><p>
  
</p><ol>
<li><strong>He has good taste in movies.</strong></li>
</ol><p>
  
</p><p>Night after night, Kelly subjects Ryan to a plethora of movies she <em>swears </em>will be good, and night after night, Ryan rolls his eyes. She swears she picks them for the plot, but they both know Kelly just picks a movie starring whatever guy she finds hottest at the time. So far, they’ve made it through at least <em>half </em>of Johnny Depp’s filmography, every Hugh Grant movie Ryan’s ever heard of, and <em>Twilight</em>, not once, not twice, but <em>six </em>times.</p><p>Kelly knows Ryan hates them. She knows he’d much rather be catching up on homework or watching a hockey game, but she also knows that Ryan <em>hates </em>to talk. These movies are a way to lessen the amount of conversation he has to put up with- to an extent, at least. Nothing is stopping Kelly from saying “Oh my god, he is <em>so </em>hot,” every five minutes. Sometimes she’ll add a “Ryan, don’t you think so?” and if she’s lucky he’ll play along. Most of the time, though, she’s met with a noncommittal grunt, but she’ll take it either way.</p><p>She <em>would </em>let Ryan pick the movies- if his taste ‘wasn’t so <em>effing </em>boring all the time’. For the first few months of their relationship, Kelly dictates every movie they watch, and Ryan accepts with minimal complaints. It’s only after Ryan asks her to watch Star Wars for the fifth time that she finally caves. When she does, she’s never been so shocked in her life.</p><p>“Oh my god, Ryan! Space romance? That’s, like, totally beautiful! You’re <em>totally </em>the Han Solo to my Princess Leia, right? He is <em>so </em>you. Am I like her? Oh my god, do you think I’m as pretty as her?”</p><p>And today must be one of the days she gets lucky.</p><p>“Of course you are. Prettier maybe.”</p><p>That’s enough to convince her that maybe Ryan’s taste isn’t so bad after all.</p><p> </p><ol>
<li><strong>He listens to her fashion advice.</strong></li>
</ol><p>
  
</p><p>When Kelly met Ryan, she thought he was a lost cause. His closet was full of cheap button downs (many of them with stains at the sleeves) and basketball shorts. His idea of dressing up outside of work meant a pair of baggy jeans and a long sleeve tee, and ‘treating himself’ meant spending a few extra bucks on a hoodie from K-Mart.</p><p>Now, if Kelly Kapoor could use any word to describe herself, it would be fashionable. How was she ever supposed to live up to her own self-imposed reputation if she let her man (though he refuses to refer to himself as such) look embarrassing? There would be no hope left in the world if Kelly Kapoor couldn’t keep her man in check.</p><p>Still, she knew when to push him and when not to, so she suffered through months of wrinkled shirts and oversized shorts before she ever even attempted to get him to clean up his act. It was little things at first, telling him here and there what color sweater she thought would bring out his eyes, how nice he’d look if he wore his pants a little tighter. Bit by bit, she got him to dress a little better, even if what she really wanted to do was go headfirst into one of those makeover montages she sees in the movies she loves so much.</p><p>The greatest change, she thinks, comes the evening they watch Spiderman for the first time (Kelly is fresh into her James Franco phase that week), when she gets the greatest epiphany of her entire life.</p><p>“Oh my GOD, Ryan! You should totally invest in a pair of glasses. You could be, like, <em>sexy </em>Tobey Maguire! And I could be like MJ- except, Kristen Dunst is totally beautiful enough already, you know?”</p><p>She thinks he’s just brushed her off like he so often does and she tries not to let it get to her. The next time they go to the mall, though, she steps out of the Macy’s changing room and spots Ryan testing out different frames in the mirror in the corner.</p><p>And if he let her pick out which ones screamed Tobey Maguire-but-with-sex-appeal the loudest, nobody had to know but her.</p><p> </p><ol>
<li><strong>He writes poetry.</strong></li>
</ol><p>
  
</p><p>Kelly doesn’t understand why Ryan doesn’t talk a lot. Most of the time she thinks it’s because of her, but it doesn’t really bother her. She’s used to talking enough for other people and doesn’t mind filling the spaces where Ryan doesn’t seem to have much to say. Still, she can’t help but wish he’d tell her what he’s thinking sometimes, even if the few times he does it tends to hurt her feelings.</p><p>One night though, she’s up watching the latest episode of American Idol when Ryan dozes off on the couch next to her. He’s got his laptop in his lap, and Kelly just assumed he was working on something for business school. But when she moves to cuddle up to his side (the only time he can’t argue about it) she sees he wasn’t doing homework at all. He was updating his blog.</p><p>She knew Ryan had wanted to start a blog for a long time, and even remembers him mentioning once about how he was asked to help Creed create his own, but it never crossed her mind to ask if he had ever gotten around to it. Now that she knew, there was no way she would forget.</p><p>From what she can see, this wasn’t just a normal blog. When Ryan brought up creating one she assumed he’d use it to write about his life or review movies or something. She never thought he’d be using it to write poetry.</p><p>Kelly slowly and carefully pries the laptop from his sleeping clutches and scrolls through post after post of Ryan’s own original poetry. Some of it, she guesses, is about her, but a lot of it isn’t. Instead, most of it is comprised of musings about different things, like flowers and snowfall and even things as simple as paperclips, definitions and metaphors stretched out into almost as many words as Kelly can fit into a single conversation.</p><p>She wonders if this was why Ryan doesn't talk as much as her. If his thoughts always came to him in such a complicated way that he thinks she wouldn't get it. She wishes he'd have more faith in her than that. She would at least try to understand for him. When she's done reading, she slips the laptop back into his lap as discreetly as she can.</p><p>Kelly never brings it up and if Ryan ever knew she’d found out about the blog, he didn’t let on. Still, not bringing it up didn’t stop her from coming back to his blog later, copying down a series of poems he’d titled: <em>The Beauty of the Rambling Girl. </em></p><p>She knows that one is for her.</p><p> </p><ol>
<li><strong>He loves her too, even if he doesn’t admit it.</strong></li>
</ol><p>
  
</p><p>Contrary to popular belief, Kelly can tell when she’s not wanted. She sees the way people’s shoulder’s tense when she walks into a room. She is not oblivious to the many times people roll their eyes at her. Even Pam can’t remain completely stoic on Kelly’s most talkative days. The difference is, Ryan doesn’t try to hide it.</p><p>Kelly knows when she’s starting to annoy Ryan. He tells her when he’s had enough of a conversation, even if sometimes it’s a little too harsh. The fact is, Ryan is a compulsive liar, but his emotions never lie. She’s learned to read them like a book. It’s the only time she’s sure he’s telling her the truth.</p><p>Her ability to read him extends beyond his annoyance, even if he doesn’t realize it. She can tell the way his face softens when he hears her laugh. She can see the fondness in his eyes when he rolls them at her for calling Orlando Bloom hot one too many times.</p><p>She also feels the way he touches her, the gentleness he saves for when he thinks she’s fallen asleep, a hand carding through her hair when he’s still up doing homework (or secretly writing love poetry), or the pad of his thumb as he slowly traces the curves of her face. It takes everything in Kelly not to smile in these moments- not to let on that she <em>knows. </em>She’s onto him, no matter how many times he pretends to be uninterested or pretends he’s not listening.</p><p>Ryan is smitten with Kelly, just as she is with him, and that thought alone is enough to make her want to stay forever, make her smile when no one’s looking, make her dance alone in her room.</p><p>He might be a liar, a thief, an all-around jerk, and a little bit of a cheater, but he <em>LOVES </em>Kelly Kapoor. She thinks an I told you so will be waiting on the tip of her tongue for the rest of her life, because that’s how long she plans on staying.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>